Bristol II: Dodge teams race quotes

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Avenger, Finished 6th)
"The track was obviously the best idea somebody could of implemented
into a half-mile. I'm happy to race on it. I'm happy to come home in
sixth place, racing Dale Jr. We led a lap and he...

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Avenger, Finished 6th)

"The track was obviously the best idea somebody could of implemented
into a half-mile. I'm happy to race on it. I'm happy to come home in
sixth place, racing Dale Jr. We led a lap and he didn't so we tied for
the day. That's big picture and we'll take it. Our Dodge Avenger was
tight in the beginning a little loose in the middle and then we got
tight there at the end. So we'll take it."

***

DAVID STREMME (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Avenger, Finished 14th)

"It was good. We needed long runs. We started in the back and finished
14th. I'm pretty happy with that. We fought hard all day and stayed on
the lead lap. That's big here. The new surface is awesome. I couldn't
run up high very much because our car was really loose so I ran the
bottom. It was a good day. It was a lot more fun out there than was it
was before. And a lot of that is from the multi-lanes. I think guys will
give and take a little more and they're not afraid to run the top side.
I was more worn out from the Busch race than this race."

"That was a decent finish for the No. 10 Valvoline/Stanley Tools Dodge.
We were tight center and off for the first half of the race and we fell
a lap down. But Rodney (Childers, team director) kept adjusting on it
every stop and we were able to fight back and get the lucky dog. In the
end we came home with the car in one piece and we gained some ground on
the top-35. "

***

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 alltel Dodge Avenger, Finished 7th) "I was miserable
in the car, but it was a good run for the alltel Dodge. We just got
behind a little bit on pit road and that was enough. We just didn't have
enough to get past those guys. We were good enough to hold our own but
couldn't pass them."

***

KENNY WALLACE (No. 45 Wells Fargo Dodge Avenger, Finished 32nd)

"We should have easily run in the top twenty five and I screwed up and
pulled a Jeff Gordon. Under the green flag pit stop I went all the way
around the whole track and it cost us five positions. But, I gave it my
all just jumping into car. That's all I had right there. I thought it
was a great opportunity and I very honored to have driven the car. The
way I looked at it, I showed up, jumped in the car and had a top twenty
five run going and screwed up.

"It was like an old Rockingham track. If you were going to pass on the
bottom you had better hurry up and get it done. After three or four laps
your tires made you go to the top side. I think it was a lot of fun
running the track. It was like getting into the draft, anytime somebody
pulled to the bottom you passed them on the outside."

"You know, it's my fault. I'm blaming myself. I was too loose for my
taste and I thought we were going to be too loose. We tightened up the
car and it was just horrible. And when we tightened it up we run for 130
laps so we went a lap down there. It was hard but we had fun today, we
ran good. I'm proud of my guys."

ARE YOU PLEASED WITH BEING ABLE TO GET THE CAR BETTER DURING THE RACE?
"Yeah, we get it better. We qualified better. I think we had a little
bit more for the race but hey, it's all we got."

YOU RACED KEVIN HARVICK FOR POSITION AT THE END OF THE RACE. "We didn't
give each other too much room. He bumped me a couple times but I don't
care. I'm not going to cry about it."

THIS WAS A PHYSICALLY DEMANDING RACE ON A HOT NIGHT. "Not really.
When it was at like lap 130, I thought man, it's going to be a long
night, and then the next time I looked it was 370 already. It was good.
It's easy when you run up front. When you start getting behind it's a
nightmare."

"We had to make an unscheduled pit stop early in the race (lap 62) with
a flat tire. That put us two laps down, a deficit we just couldn't
overcome. We didn't have the front grip we needed early in the race. The
crew worked on the car and made progress, but we didn't get the breaks
we needed to get those laps back. Kasey (Kahne) had a great race."

TALK ABOUT TWO TOP TEN FINISHES IN A ROW -- "I'm going to give Doug
(Randolph) a lot of credit. He is just really good on the radio; made
some good calls. We fought some of the things we have fought all year
but we worked on them a little bit differently. It really was a good
night. At first our car was really good we just kept hanging in there
but we got a little tight towards the end and couldn't go forward with
it. All and all it was a great night."

ARE YOU BUILDING MOMENTUM FOR 2008? "That's what we said last year too
and it didn't work out. Hopefully we are. I think we have a lot of great
ideas. We have some good things that could happen to us if we do the
right things over the wintertime and in the last part of the year that
will enhance the race team; that is going to be key for our growth. If
we do that right, hopefully we'll be stronger when we unload at Daytona
next year.

LABONTE SAYS COMMUNICATION HAS BEEN THE KEY TO YOUR LAST TWO TOP 10s, DO
YOU AGREE? "There is not much change for sure, especially here. Car of
Tomorrow race I have never really crew chief-ed one. I relied on a lot
of people here with the background of what has worked for Bobby in the
COT race. I think the biggest thing is we just worked on communication;
trying to figure out what kind of changes to make, to make the right
changes and how big a change to make. I think we're just trying to stay
in the ballpark and learn a little bit at time and not step out of
bounds to far where it's hard to step back in. You know it was a tough
weekend for us, we got here and tried some stuff sorta out of the box
and were off a little bit and gained on it all weekend. So it's a great
weekend for the whole team. Bobby did an awesome job going through the
field at the start of the race. Pit crew did a great job. It's all about
building momentum and we've got two weeks in a row here and we just hope
to build on that."